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Talk:The de'Arnise Keep has been Invaded/@comment-35434313-20200119094741
I have just gone through this quest again in a new game. Here I'd like to share a few observations: A) The 4 dogs in the courtyard are neutral towards my party until attacked, but they don't fight back at all. B) Killing TorGal is not really "a tough boss fight" as claimed in the wiki. The ultimate reason for that is: if you follow the story line in a "natural" way, you may be greeted by Nalia just a couple of hours after you have started a new game. And if you heed her complaint about how urgent this matter is, you'll visit DeArnise Keep no more than a few hours into a new game. Your character is relatively weak and your party is poorly equipped. TorGal must have had to be designed in a way that even a starting party can handle without feeling overwhelmed at all. So, even on Insane Difficulty, this is no more than a regular boss fight. And if the player has delayed the quest and comes with a much stronger party at a later time, the whole quest as well as TorGal himself may feel too easy to even talk about combat-wise. C) Nalia alone is more than capable of handling everything involved in this quest, including all the locks, traps, trolls, Yuan-Ti, Umber Hulks, dog stew, as well as a charmed captain and TorGal himself. This must be a way how the original Game designer "secretly" let a poorly equipped fledging player party of any size handle the quest without feeling too hard. D) Here is an outline of the strategy of how you can leave the rest of your party in a safe corner and solely control (solo play) Nalia to single-handedly deal with all the enemies in the Keep. ''' '''No potions, no healing, no scrolls, no quick items or charges will be needed. Nalia will rely solely on her known spells, mediocre thieving skills, and a short bow shooting fire/acid arrows. 1) Have Nalia scribe the following spells before going to the Keep - Invisibility: while invisible, Nalia may safely explore the entire keep except where TorGal is - Animate Dead: Nalia, if solo, will need summons to tank for her - Spell Immunity: Nalia, if solo, will need SI: Enchantment to counter Umber Hulks' Confusion - Melf's Minute Meteors (highly recommended, see a note below): very helpful to Nalia for destroying all the trolls and golems including an Iron Golem in the keep - Remove Magic: Nalia can cast this spell to bring the charmed captain back to normal - Fireball Note: Nalia comes with Haste when joining. No need to learn that. Note: there is an Iron Golem in the keep. To destroy it early in the game, Nalia needs a +3 or better weapon (more options will come up when she levels up further, but not at level 10 or 11). She has 3 ways to get it: a) via spell Melf's Minute Meteors, or b) via spell Enchant Weapon, or c) via spell Polymorph Self : Flind (already known to her). Find uses a halberd that strikes like +3 and does +1 fire damage too. Enchant Weapon can be cast on herself or on her summons. It will make their weapon to be treated like +3. However, neither Flind nor Enchant Weapon alters THAC0. If she uses Polymorph Self or Enchant Weapon on herself, her THAC0 can be only about 15 or slightly better. Given Nalia's terrible THAC0 as well as the fact that none of her summons is strong, Melf's Minute Meteors is her best option. It will boost her THAC0 to about 10 for a shooting rate of 5 (6 if hasted) per round. 3 or 4 casts with each cast giving her 10 or 11 meteors should be enough to destroy an Iron Golem. 2) The basic tactic: Have Nalia go invisible and explore everywhere so that you know where enemies are. Then, get a few summons to tank for Nalia. Haste every one. Start a fight by Nalia shooting a fireball into the fog of war near enemies. 3) How to have Nalia handle the Yuan-Ti mage on the 2nd floor? This mage stays neutral until after a dialog upon seeing you. So you can kill him with summons while keeping Nalia invisible. Or, you can have a few hasted summons surround him and have Nalia initiate a talk. After turning hostile, despite he may cast Stoneskin twice, this low-level mage will have no chance/time to cast offensive spells. 4) How to have Nalia handle Umber Hulks? Note: these creatures are the only major danger in this quest. 6 of them can effortlessly screw up a party of 6, with their innate Confusion ability. They are always hasted. On Insane difficulty, 6 of them can destroy 6 low-level party members in no time (if you allow it). Fortunately, Nalia can stay invisible and lure them away with that dog stew. After that, Nalia can use Spell Immunity: Enchantment to protect herself from Confusion and kill them like faster trolls. 5) How to have Nalia destroy the Iron Golem? Nalia does not get a weapon through this quest line that she can use in destroying the Iron Golem. Fortunately, she can cast Melf's Minute Meteors. Job done. 6) How to have Nalia solo TorGal and his Giant Troll bodyguards? There is no need for any trick. At this point, Nalia's level should be 11. At level 11, she can summon 3 bigger skeleton warriors. Just use the same strategy and the 3 skeleton warriors can hold the front line for a while. If necessary, have Nalia cast Invisibility and run away to take a rest. If sleep gets interrupted, don't break Invisibility. Just move to the floor above and sleep again. Kill 2 Giant Trolls first, do a rest to bring back spell slots, and then kill TorGal. Job done. 7) Note: if you bring a full party to help Nalia in the last boss fight, TorGal can be killed in seconds. With a party of 6, plus 5 summoned skeleton warriors, all hasted, you will have at least 2 attacks per round * 11 = 22 attacks per round against 3 enemy trolls. For each Mage who uses Melf's Minute Meteors, you get extra 4 attacks per round. All together, your party will do 30+ attacks per round if you have two Meteors-shooting mages (e.g., Nalia & Aerie). Additionally, in every round, every spellcaster in your party can cast one spell against the trolls. TorGal and his trolls will fall in seconds. In the case that a player has postponed the quest and later comes here with a much stronger party, this will become a trivial fight. TorGal may be killed by any party member with little effort in no time. Here's a screenshot: Cast Haste, Streng of One, Haste, Prot from Evil. Cast a FarSight to reveal TorGal and his two bodyguards. Sent in a summon to lure the bodyguards towards us. TorGal followed. So we fought at the door. Focus on one target at a time. Seconds later, 1 summon died (or he was on the other side of the door?), two Giant Trolls killed, and TorGal fell.